Agenda Setters: McNealy's vision of IT without Microsoft

Scott McNealy remains one of the most controversial and outspoken figures in the IT world. As CEO and president of Sun Microsystems, his vision of network-based computing has changed the way in which IT systems across the world are managed.

Silicon.com spoke to McNealy last month in London on his return from Telecom '99. There, he updated his vision of the network computer in the light of developments in mobile computing, XML, and the growth of the Application Service Provider (ASP).

Characteristically, his "vision" included a prediction of the demise of Microsoft.

According to McNealy: "Your service provider is going to provide all those software services online so you don't buy them... Your service provider will provide you software, there's not going to be a retail shrink-wrapped applications business. The biggest two in the world are Windows and Office - they're going away."

McNealy also showed his continued commitment to Java technology, and outlined why he spent $75m to obtain the StarOffice programme.

"This is the dawn of a pretty interesting new era, that enables a whole bunch of new things, like free StarOffice, free Linux, enabling you to move the computer completely out of the office and put it in to the back room," he said.

For the full interview and profile of Scott McNealy see Silicon.com's Agenda Setters feature on the Enterprise OS channel (http://www.silicon.com/a34251 ).